The most helpful favorable review

The most helpful critical review

1,599 of 1,630 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 starsAwesome Light for the $$

Customer Video Review
Length:: 3:08 Mins

Check out this video review of the CN-160. I highly recommend using this light. It was a lifesaver in a low light wedding event. I mainly shoot video, so this light is awesome for the $$. This light is so bright, I've even used it as a fill light in various lighting situations.

3.0 out of 5 starsOw, My Eyes
This thing is surprisingly bright. From a meter away, ISO 100, it gives a 2.8 split. The reason I give this a rating lower than 5 is because the color temp is off. It is too blue, slightly green. This is no surprise considering the price. It is also why one of the gels that comes with it is -green. But I feel that the gels that they give are too strong for cine...

Check out this video review of the CN-160. I highly recommend using this light. It was a lifesaver in a low light wedding event. I mainly shoot video, so this light is awesome for the $$. This light is so bright, I've even used it as a fill light in various lighting situations.

Update:After using the light a little longer, I'm still a huge fan for the price. However, I should mention a couple of cons (all of which are minor imo).1. The tungsten filter is too orange for my tastes. So, if you are relying on this light because of the tungsten filter, you may want to reconsider or make your own filter. There's a nice little slot where the filters slide into.2. The construction is plastic, however, I wouldn't go so far as to say it's cheap plastic. I feel comfortable with the construction, but don't expect it to be indestructible.

This video light looks similar to one I paid $100.00 for over a year ago except it has been improved. This video light is much brighter and the adjustable bracket has been "beefed up" and holds steady. The original versions arm would flop down over the course of the evening but this one doesn't do that. I shoot weddings several times a year and I find that if I use two of these on stands to light up a dance floor and use one on my video camera I never have a lighting problem. This company has the best price that I have found, enough so where you can afford to purchase several to light up dark areas of your video shoot. A great light and a great deal.

This thing is surprisingly bright. From a meter away, ISO 100, it gives a 2.8 split. The reason I give this a rating lower than 5 is because the color temp is off. It is too blue, slightly green. This is no surprise considering the price. It is also why one of the gels that comes with it is -green. But I feel that the gels that they give are too strong for cine work. The -green only needs to be a 1/4 maybe 1/2, not a full. Now skin tone is too red; a nice gesture at least. Another con of the unit is that it is obviously more bright in the center of the light and then there is an uneven vignette to the rest. This is not specific to this 160 unit, I also ordered a 126 led unit and have the same issue. You can easily fix this by reflecting the light or putting on some black foil, but built in barn doors would be a practical addition. A rather peculiar thing is that to my eyes the 126 led light seems brighter. When doing a light check with my light meter, a nice sekonic digital one, it was reading half a stop brighter than the 160 light one. That's funny, more lights equal less power. I did a test right up on the light source and the f-stop at 100 iso was 16.3 for both of them. I assume for some reason the drop off is faster on the 160 unit. The 160 led unit does however have a greater spread, and considering the vignette this is an advantage because more area is flatly lit. This might seem like a lot of complaints, but for the price this is expected and still worth purchasing. The Arri version of these lights, although it comes with mounts and chargers and external dimmers, costs 2,000 dollars because you don't need -green and the light is even. I can live with these. I have already done an initial shoot with these lights out in broad daylight, and it really does fill the shadows well. If you are lacking a bounce board, this is good for a one man team. Another good use would be for a doc camera- but I would suggest picking up an umbrella mount or something stronger to diffuse it because as is the shadows are too harsh on the face. If you do narrative work, I suggest getting a suction cup mount, like the Panavise 809, to mount on windows. This light could fake daylight or accentuate a shadowed window as long as you have the right gel on there.

In this new lighting and manufacturing world of competitive pricing and cheap labor, there are some winners and losers. This 160 LED light can be used with almost EVERY battery made for pro and prosumer cameras. The universal battery mount is unique for a low cost light. The mounting hardware suffers from inadequate design and construction and only lasted one job before I had to redesign myown mount along with a popular hot shoe adaptor from another manufacturer. The light is also a 5600K CT lamp supplied with 3 hard plastic filters: CTO (color temp orange)- supposedly an 85 gel clone, a diffusion filter and a pink filter for those interested in playing with the WB of the camera in conjunction with this light. If you read around you find out that the top of the line LED lights have a RATED CT with very little GREEN in their out put . This light is NOT one of those and thus I found a significant amount of blueish green around my subjects in multiple WB tests. But for event work and even somecorporate and educational users you may find this lamp useful and easy to correct for in the edit room.

One other observation this Chinese made instrument has a good dimmer/ on off switch but the on position and higher intensity setting is made by turning the dial DOWNWARD, to me a counter intuitivemotion. The dial is easily reachable if the light is positioned on the front hot shoe of your camera. It can also be used a good kicker light for quick set ups and will run on a small camera battery for hours.

I am a wedding videographer and constantly have issues when venues turn down the lights for the reception. I used this light for the first time this weekend and was very impressed. Despite it's size it is incredibly light weight. There is a toggle switch which turns the light on as well as functioning as a dimmer. The light can go from what I would call "fill" level to almost lighting the whole room. It gave me enough options to provide enough light throughout the entire evening. It came with two filters which help some, but I found the stock white filter to provide the perfect level and tone for the event. Battery life seems great. I used 6 AA and did not have to change the batteries until almost the end of the evening (I had been recording for almost 3 hours at that point). My only negative comment would be the plastic base it sits on. It fit nicely into my shoe mount, but was hard to get the right angle. For the price it can't get any better! Can't wait until my next event to use it again!

I am a professional photographer and cinematographer. I have been using this light for quite some time now and really love it. As others have said, it does have a green spike, but the provided minus green filter (the pink one) does the trick in removing that spike. I have found that the minus green filter they provided is almost exactly the same grade as Rosco 1/4 Minus Green so if you ever lose the plastic one, just get the Rosco replacement (single sheet is only $5) I threw away the orange plastic filter they provided because it is just terrible. It is supposed to convert the light into tungsten, but instead it just casts an ugly orange. I NEVER used it.

It is a little spotty, but nothing diffusion can't fix. The output on this unit is pretty impressive. I have used it for talking head interviews, photography close-ups, independent films for those small space. You can even use it for fill in certain situations in daylight. This is a great light modeling tool too. I simply put the light in my hand and move it around my subject to mold how and where I want my shadows to fall. This gives me a quick idea on how I am going to position my main lights. I also cut a piece of black foam core with a circle in the middle to turn this into a catch light. That way, the pupils reflect a pleasing circular shape opposed to a square one. The flexibility and range of use with this light is fantastic. I highly recommend.

I agree with all who felt it was a good buy, being much lower in price to similar brands with the same features. I was also delighted with it. At first.

Unfortunately, the plastic screw clamp split at the seam after one usage. I have tried to figure out a way to fix it, but there doesn't seem to be a way. Basically, the thing is useless if you can't achieve a secure mount. I'm not sure if the more expensive brands have sturdier construction, but I sure don't recommend this one.

Later note: Others have said the connection is "fragile" but okay if handled carefully. However, just using it normally, that is, screwing the hot shoe down caused the ring to split. Maybe this one was more defective than others, but it could use some strengthening. There was no metal on the one I got.

I went over to the hardware store today because I thought I might attach this thing to an adapter which has a tripod thread on one end and a hot shoe mount on the other. I suppose one could drill a threaded hole for the tripod mount, but I'm not sure how long that would last. I came up with a Rube Goldberg solution. If you unscrew the bottom joint, you will find that the screw inside the joint is the same gage as the tripod mount - 1/4". In the hardware store I found a coupler for 1/4" screws and attached it to the screw in the joint. if I turn the unit sideways it mounts to the screw on top of a tripod or, using my adapter, I can mount it on a hot shoe. If you have a ball top tripod, it still is somewhat versatile, but using the hot shoe mount on top of the camera is tricky. Although there are adapters that help out here, this is not a good solution if you're trying to shoot a wedding with the light on the camera. It works okay for studio situations.

I bought the CN-160 LED light to take advantage of the amazing video opportunities with the Canon 5DII DSLR. First, this light is very bright; much brighter than my desk lamp. It is room-temperature cool, and the broad panel of illumination works well for close-ups, but acts more like a spotlight for subjects a few feet away. It puts out a decent fan of light, but anything wider than a 35mm lens on a full-frame DSLR will experience serious vignetting.

It is lightweight and relatively well constructed, though I am weirded-out that it leaves the 6 AA batteries exposed at the rear. Like everyone, I'm used to covered battery compartments. It also gets quite a bit heavier (duh) when loaded up with batteries. There is a test button with four LEDs on the back to let you verify the battery status.

You can attach the plastic base to a hotshoe for run-and-gun photography, but it also has a threaded socket to mount the light on a tripod or stand. The lightweight base may (I don't know) shatter if you whack the light while working.

It comes with three diffuser panels: a clear diffuser, a gold diffuser and a magenta diffuser. I would love to have a 30CC green diffuser for shooting under standard office fluorescent lights. This would let you to white balance the light so the background color would be clean instead of dirty green. Oh, well. I may cobble something together out of a green two-liter Sprite bottle.

This thing Wasss great. Great price, fast shipping, bright lights just like the video review. All the battery options were awesome. Till it stopped working for the Sony format rechargeable battery. I thought my battery died till I connected it to my Sony camcorder and it worked fine. It still takes AA batteries at the moment but that's a waste when you have a perfectly good rechargeable battery! It's been over 30 days so no way to return it. I would still give it 5 stars if I could get this thing replaced.

**UPDATE** So about a month ago or more, just like alot of people are saying the base broke right off. I don't rough up my gear in any way. In fact i babied it since reading the comments. Still it just came right off. A better design or plastic would have prevented it.

This is a great light for the price. It's pretty darn bright. The only down sides are the lack of a DC plug for possible plug-in use and the fact that it has a some green in the light. They DO provide a minus green filter (plus red), but this cuts the light output. To keep the color temperature correct and not have a lot of light loss I just cut a small piece of 1/4 minus green gel and put that permanently in front of the LEDs.